The Class Icons

The icons in the Class Window give information about the structure of your knowledge base and the nature of your classes.

The icons to the left of the class name give information about the display of the class hierarchy:

This icon indicates that all direct subclasses of the class are displayed. You can click on this icon to hide the subclasses. In the example, the subclasses of Content are displayed. In some views, this is shown as a -.
This icon indicates that the class has direct subclasses which are not currently displayed. You can click on this icon to display the subclasses. In the example, Layout_info has subclasses which are not being displayed. In some views, this is shown as a +.
No icon The absence of a or a indicates that the class has no subclasses. In the example, Library has no subclasses.

The color of the C icons give information about the type of class:

The class can be edited.
The class is a metaclass. 
A pale icon indicates that the class has been included from another project. Included classes cannot be edited. See Including a Project for more information about including a project.

Icons to the right of a class give additional information about the class. You can control the display of these icons by choosing Configure from the Project menu, going to the Display tab, and toggling the appropriate option:

The class is abstract. A class can have one of two roles: concrete or abstract. Concrete classes may have direct instances; abstract classes cannot have direct instances. No icon means the class is concrete. See The Class Form for more information on the class role.
The class has multiple superclasses. Protégé-2000 allows classes to have more than one superclass. means the class has multiple superclasses. No icon means the class has only one superclass. See Jumping to Another Superclass for more information.
The class is hidden. No icon means the class is not hidden. You can choose whether or not hidden classes are displayed in the Class Relationship pane by choosing Configure from the Project menu, going to the Display tab, and toggling the Display Hidden Classes option. You can use this, for example, if you want to restrict the user's view to a part of your knowledge base but want to retain the structure of the larger project.

Next: The Class Menu

Classes Table of Contents